Chapter 1
I'm Very Very Small
A brief introduction to book 2 of Somebody Else's Problem
Ash sat up, holding her head. "Doctor?" She called out as she carefully got to her feet, struggling to adjust to her new body. "Anybody?" She quietly asked.
Flashing lights and clouds of smoke filled the Console Room and Ash fell as the Tardis began to shake violently. The floor was pitching and heaving so strongly that it took everything she had to hold on to the grating on the floor. They were crashing!
Once things settled, Ash shook out her cramping fingers and stood unsteadily. The room was oddly quiet and dark.
"Doctor?" She called out again. "Where is everybody?"
Rose and Mickey came into her view as she stumbled over to the captain's chair. "Rose!" she called out as she knelt next to her. Ash's eyes widened as she saw that they were both bleeding from their noses and ears. "No… no no no…" Ash tried shaking them to wake them up but they remained still.
Ash sat down and started tugging at her hair with her left hand. She felt both groggy and like her mind was spinning at a million miles an hour. "Doctor?" She whimpered, unaware that the Doctor was lying unconscious in a nearby hallway.
Before Ash could even contemplate coming up with a plan, pain flared through her body. She curled herself into a ball on the floor, moaning. But the pain faded as she exhaled a golden stream of regeneration energy.
"Ha!" she exclaimed, deciding her regeneration energy would heal them. Bending over Rose, Ash blew regeneration energy into her mouth as though she were doing CPR, then sat back, chewing on her thumb knuckle as she waited to see if Rose would wake up.
Rose suddenly arched her back and took a huge breath, before collapsing again. "It worked! It really worked!" Ash shouted as she started to shake Rose's shoulders again. Rose was breathing, but remained unconscious.
The Doctor stood up in a dark hallway, rubbing his neck. "Ash!" he said as he remembered what had just happened. He ran into the Console Room to find her crouched over Mickey, apparently giving him CPR.
"Doctor!" Ash cried as she darted over and wrapped her arms around him. The top of her head barely reached his waist.
"Ash? What? I… But you're… Never mind… figure out how to deal with this latter." He said blinking rapidly. "Now's not the time."
The Doctor then moved Ash to the side and rushed over to Rose, sonic raised. Despite the blood on their faces and lack of consciousness, both Rose and Mickey seemed to be in perfect health.
"Ash? What did you do?" he asked.
"I'm Ash."
"Yep."
"Kind of not-Ash though." she said.
"Not this again." he said, running a hand through his very messed up hair. "Not-Ash IS Ash. You regenerated just like I did."
"Hmmmm." she said, unconvinced. "I'm very very small."
"Yes you are." he said, patting her on the head.
"And I can't really remember Ash Ash."
"Your memories will come back. You're not done regenerating yet."
"Oh." Ash said and leaned the side of her head against the console. She ran her right arm along the edge, "She's dead. The Tardis is dead." She solemnly told the Doctor before jumping back and running to the other side. "But I can fix her!"
"No. You can't." The Doctor said as he walked around the console towards Ash.
"But I can! I made Rose and Mickey better… I think." Ash said, reaching out toward the console. "I can!"
"You could give all your regeneration energy to the Tardis and she'd still be gone." The Doctor explained while reaching out to stop Ash.
"NO!" Ash yelled running over to the captain's chair.
The Doctor took a few steps towards Ash and said, "I can't lose you too, Ash."
"But…"
"I'm sorry." He said.
Holding back tears, Ash tried to climb up onto the Captain's chair but failed and reached her arms up towards the Doctor who lifted her up. "She's gone." he said and bent down to rest his forehead against Ash's.
"What was that?!" Ash said, lightly knocking her forehead against the Doctor's as she quickly tilted her head back. She had felt the Doctor's grief for the Tardis and concern for her.
"Later." The Doctor said, rubbing his forehead. He then smiled as Rose regained consciousness and he walked over to help her stand.
"What's happened?" Rose asked as she sat up. "Why is it all dark?"
"The time vortex is gone. It's impossible, but it's just gone. We've crashed." the Doctor said, helping Rose over to the console.
"Ummm, Ash?" Rose asked, baffled by the child sitting in the captain's chair.
"Yep. That's Ash." the Doctor said.
"I saved you." Ash said pointing to Rose. "And you." She said pointing to Mickey who was starting to moan. "But I can't save her." She said, pouting and pointing to the rotor.
"But…" Rose said before turning to look at Mickey who had stood up and was trying to rub off some dried blood on his cheek.
"I'm fine. I'm okay. Sorry. Yeah." Mickey said. Then he noticed Ash. "That's Ash!?"
"But she's…" Rose started.
"About four, yeah." the Doctor said.
"Wow. Um, hi and thanks for saving us." she said to Ash with a little wave and a big smile.
"Well… I almost killed you first." she said with a shrug.
"Right. But then you saved us. I remember. You shared your regeneration energy." Rose said. "She's not really supposed to do that though is she? I mean you were really sick for a while when you regenerated… Is she going to be okay?"
"No, but she'll probably be fine." the Doctor replied to Rose. Turning to Ash he scanned her with his sonic and continued. "Yep. All good. Just don't do that again! You got lucky. It's almost impossible for someone your age to control that sort of transfer. You could have completely drained yourself."
"So what do we do now?" Mickey asked the Doctor.
"You can fix it? Can't you Doctor?" Rose said.
"There's nothing to fix. She's perished. The last Tardis in the universe. Extinct."
"She's not actually dead yet." Ash said quietly, but the Doctor just sighed and shook his head.
"We can get help, yeah?" Rose said.
"Where from?" the Doctor asked.
"Well, we've landed. We've got to be somewhere." Rose said as Mickey walked towards the door.
"We fell out of the vortex, through the void, into nothingness. We're in some sort of no place. The silent realm. The lost dimension."
Opening the door, Mickey says, "Otherwise known as London." He steps completely out of the Tardis to pick up a paper. "London, England, Earth. Hold on. First of February this year. Not exactly far flung, is it?"
The Doctor, Rose and Ash make for the door, the Doctor keeping Ash behind him. "So this is London." he said.
"Yep." replied Mickey.
Ash, struggling to get past the Doctor said, "Umm, you sure about that Mickey. It feels wrong."
"Definitely London." Mickey said.
"Just as we left it?" the Doctor asked, looking up at several Zeppelins in the sky.
"Bang on."
"And that includes the Zeppelins?"
Mickey looks up, "What the hell?"
"That's beautiful." Rose said.
"So cool." Ash said. She still can't get past the Doctor but at least they've both made it outside of the Tardis.
"Okay, so it's London with a big international Zeppelin festival." Mickey said.
"No way. This place feels really weird." Ash said.
"But if the date's the same, it's parallel, right? Am I right? Like a parallel Earth where they've got Zeppelins. Am I right? I'm right, aren't I?" Mickey said, excited to understand what's going on.
"Must be." the Doctor said.
"So, a parallel world where…" Rose began, looking confused.
Mickey, turning to Rose, said, "Oh, come on. You've seen it in films. Like an alternative to our world where everything's the same but a little bit different, like, I don't know, traffic lights are blue, Tony Blair never got elected."
"... he's still alive…" Rose said walking slowly over to an advert for Vitex Lite on the side of a bus stop shelter. "A parallel world and my dad's still alive."
"Don't look at it, Rose. Don't even think about it. This is not your world." The Doctor said with growing concern. Rose didn't exactly have a good track record when it came to interacting with her dad Pete.
"But he's my dad." Rose said as she touched the advert which sprang to life with Pete saying "Trust me on this." and giving a thumbs up.
"Well, that's weird. But he's real." Rose said.
"Trust me on this." repeated as they stood around watching.
"He's a success. He was always planning these daft little schemes. Health food, drinks and stuff. Everyone said they were useless. But he did it." Rose said, staring intently at the image of her dad.
The Doctor stepped towards her and said, "If you've ever trusted me, then listen to me now. Stop looking at it." He paused and turned Rose away from the advert, leaving his hands on her shoulders. "Your father's dead. He died when you were six months old. That is not your Pete. That is A Pete. For all we know, he's got his own Jackie, his own Rose. His own daughter who is someone else, but not you. You can't see him. Not ever."
"Trust me on this." with Pete giving a thumbs up.
"Trust me on this." with Pete giving a thumbs up.
"Trust me on this." with Pete giving a thumbs up.
…
